Video: Pro-abortion protest against Catholics in Argentina as classy as you’d expect

posted at 3:21 pm on December 3, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

This gives a new meaning to the phrase “crotch shots,” but it’s not a pleasant change, as you’ll see in this video from Argentina. Last week, pro-abortion activists marched on the cathedral in San Juan de Cuyo as Catholics surrounded the building in prayer to protect it from violence. The protesters took out their rage on the faithful, spray-painting their faces and, er, aiming lower in some cases:

A graphic video from Argentina is making the rounds of the Internet today showing violent protests with pro-abortion activists attacking pro-life people praying at a Catholic Church.

The abortion activists attempted to storm the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista (John the Baptist) in Argentina late last month.

Taken in San Juan de Cuyo, Argentina sometime between November 23 and 25, the video shows, as described on YouTube, “feminists and their male peers bellow[ing] noisy and anti-Catholic slogans drawing through the city. In retaliation, 1500 young Catholics formed a human shield around the Cathedral to prevent about 7000 antagonists from storming the Archdiocesan Church.”

The video shows topless women spray painting the people praying — in their faces and putting Nazi swastikas on their clothing.

So where were the police? Oh, they were there … but the victims were the wrong gender, or something:

The police indicated they would not help the pro-life Catholics in front of the church because the protestors were women.

After watching the video, one might guess that the police were intimidated by the sheer size of the protest. Clearly, they didn’t want to intervene on behalf of some people who were turning themselves into passive human shields to protect their place of worship. It’s not as if they had been taken by surprise, though, because this happens every year in Argentina for its National Meeting of Women, and a trek to defile the local cathedral is always on the agenda.

Around 500 abortion activists in Posadas hurled insults, spat and threw paint on young Catholics who prayed the Rosary outside the local cathedral and prevented the demonstrators from entering.

The activists convened in the city Oct. 7 for the 27th National Meeting of Women in Argentina.

According to local media, the group march through the city, painting homes and streets with slogans in support of abortion and homosexual marriage as well as anti-Catholic slurs.

Some activists reportedly stripped naked, while others made sexual gestures at the young people standing in prayer outside the Cathedral of Posadas.

CNA also reported on it in 2009, when the route did get detoured away from the local cathedral:

The self-titled “National Meeting of Women,” which recently took place in Tucuman, Argentina, was not the exclusive domain of pro-abortion propaganda as in recent years, but this year was attended by a well-prepared group of women who spoke up in defense of life and against abortion.

In a report issued by the Christian Family Movement, analyst Eduardo Zavalia said the feminists who organized this event were shocked, as they had been accustomed to “doing and saying whatever they wanted and telling others what to say.” This year, he recounted, they were met with a group of women “firm in their values and large enough in numbers to be a majority in most of the workshops.”

“In some workshops, overcome by mere reason, abortion activists resorted to physically removing those who defended life,” the report said.

Even the usual violent and anti-Catholic march organized by abortion supporters was detoured this year in order to avoid passing in front of the cathedral where they usually harassed the faithful.

A video posted on YouTube.com put on full display the ferocity of abortion supporters who were participating in the National Meeting of Women in the Argentinean city of Neuquen last August. It shows them harassing and insulting a group of Catholic young people who were standing outside the Cathedral of Neuquen to keep the church safe from the protests.

The National Meeting of Women is a feminist event that takes place each year to pressure authorities to legalize abortion and to promote reproductive rights and gender ideology.

Financed by anti-life NGOs and supported by the government of Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the meeting brings together pro-abortion, feminist, homosexual and left-wing organizations.

The meeting usually ends with a protest through the streets of the host city, with organizers planning the route to include a stop at the local cathedral. This year, in order to keep protestors from trashing the cathedral grounds, a group of young people from Neuquen stood outside the cathedral to pray and form a barrier against the protestors.

That’s why the Catholics in the diocese were ready to protect their church. It’s not much of a mystery why the police weren’t prepared to protect them from these attacks, though, as the Kirchner government supports the thugs rather than the peaceful people they attack.

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The pro-life movement went through a phase of vandalism against abortion centers and rhetoric that lead to the murder of doctors. It is hardly in a position to condemn the excess of the pro-abortion activists. But I would agree that they shouldn’t be acting that way. Both sides should calm down a little and be more reasonable.

It is amazing how liberals and leftists paint themselves as victims, aggrieved, subjugated and abused.

Yet, they are the opposite and nothing but hateful, despotic, abusive, unintelligent perpetrators of violence against those who disagree with them. Facts mean nothing to them, only their cretinous, emotional, destructive thoughts which they are determined to force on society.
Look familiar? It should as this, is what liberalism has given to the world. Mobs of useless, hateful thugs with no tolerance for others.

There is zero difference between the Kirchnerites and the leftists in America, except for the perception that if leftists here tried that nonsense, merely getting thrown in prison for assault and battery would be their best possible fate.

The pro-life movement went through a phase of vandalism against abortion centers and rhetoric that lead to the murder of doctors. It is hardly in a position to condemn the excess of the pro-abortion activists. But I would agree that they shouldn’t be acting that way.

thuja on December 3, 2013 at 3:33 PM

Your blind desire to protect abortion is pathetic, to say the least. The people who defend their viewpoint in the manner you do above are just about the most intellectually dishonest twits on the face of the planet. But why don’t you direct us to a comparable display from the pro-life side since you are going to use the rather lazy method of moral equivalency. Please show us the pro-life thugs assaulting, en masse, pro-baby killers.

Both sides should calm down a little and be more reasonable.

Oh yes, praying out loud, and allowing one’s self to be a human target of humiliation and degradation is just aggressive.

The pro-life movement went through a phase of vandalism against abortion centers and rhetoric that lead to the murder of doctors. It is hardly in a position to condemn the excess of the pro-abortion activists.

And in no way substantively or on scale comparative to the pro-abortion crowd.

Look across the provable incidents. You will find they were isolated, not organized or representative of a plurality of pro-life supporters, overblown by the press and condemned resoundingly by the community.

The pro-life crowd is mostly organized around Catholic/Christian principles and religious doctrine. Which is why these thugs were marching on and trying to desecrate a church surrounded by peaceful protectors.

The pro-life movement went through a phase of vandalism against abortion centers and rhetoric that lead to the murder of doctors. It is hardly in a position to condemn the excess of the pro-abortion activists. But I would agree that they shouldn’t be acting that way. Both sides should calm down a little and be more reasonable.

thuja on December 3, 2013 at 3:33 PM

Even if that were true (it’s unadulterated BS), how would that justify what is clearly an annualized “phase” of vandalism and violence?

Of course not. Then again we must remember you are calling people who kill human beings in the womb doctors when they long ago lost any claim to that title. Abortionists might be credentialed, but they will never be doctors.

Just as DarkCurrent has an elaborate alarm system that sounds whenever HotAir mentions the brutal oligarchs of China–thus allowing him to ignore HotAir the rest of the time, thuja is always ready & eager to defend butchering children.

Spray paint is an evil capitalist product sold to keep the downtrodden in chains because they get high from sniffing it which causes them to riot.If weed was legalized these events wouldn’t happen.
libfreeorcry on December 3,2013

The pro-life movement went through a phase of vandalism against abortion centers and rhetoric that lead to the murder of doctors. It is hardly in a position to condemn the excess of the pro-abortion activists. But I would agree that they shouldn’t be acting that way. Both sides should calm down a little and be more reasonable.

Apparently the people protesting in front of the church were SSPX, not Catholic. Considering that the SSPX’s last stunt in Argentina was to disrupt the annual Holocaust memorial service at Buenos Aires Cathedral, perhaps the police thought that this was a “pox on both your houses” sort of thing. It seems that both sides were looking for a fight.

The pro-life movement went through a phase of vandalism against abortion centers and rhetoric that lead to the murder of doctors. It is hardly in a position to condemn the excess of the pro-abortion activists. But I would agree that they shouldn’t be acting that way. Both sides should calm down a little and be more reasonable.

thuja on December 3, 2013 at 3:33 PM

You’re a liar, thuja. Fewer than a handful of people have ever been involved in any violence against abortion providers – in 40 years of pro-life protests. This has happened EVERY YEAR FOR 5 YEARS.

This was a beautiful example of passive action. Standing firm, not returning evil for evil. It might not make any difference to anyone at those protests, but it will be a gem in these men’s crowns on the final day.

Your blind desire to protect abortion is pathetic, to say the least. The people who defend their viewpoint in the manner you do above are just about the most intellectually dishonest twits on the face of the planet. But why don’t you direct us to a comparable display from the pro-life side since you are going to use the rather lazy method of moral equivalency. Please show us the pro-life thugs assaulting, en masse, pro-baby killers.

NotCoach on December 3, 2013 at 3:43 PM

There have been excesses on both sides, as some murdered doctors show. I have seen with my own eyes pro-lifers being inappropriately aggressive towards women entering abortion clinics. There is nothing dishonest, intellectually or otherwise, about pointing this out.

About this “blind desire” to defend a particular side, I seem to remember a story in your Bible about a “mote in the eye”.

I would respectfully ask the Holy Father if he thinks this sort of thing happening in his (adopted) home country might prompt some practicing Catholics to “obsess” on abortion just a tad… and if that’s OK.

The pro-life movement went through a phase of vandalism against abortion centers and rhetoric that lead to the murder of doctors. It is hardly in a position to condemn the excess of the pro-abortion activists.

And in no way substantively or on scale comparative to the pro-abortion crowd.

Those men guarding the cathedral in prayer are so remarkable. While part of me would have been tempted to be far less Christian towards the mob (courtesy of my Louisville slugger), I think I would have taken even more joy in solidarity with the men in prayer… because I just know deep down that that sort of thing really pisses off that pack of jackals.

That’s why the Catholics in the diocese were ready to protect their church. It’s not much of a mystery why the police weren’t prepared to protect them from these attacks, though, as the Kirchner government supports the thugs rather than the peaceful people they attack.

I call BS on you *EVER* seeing anything remotely like this. EVER. I actually stopped by a protest outside an abortion mill one day – one that had been ongoing and had been tagged by the pro-abortion forces as troublesome – and sat about a block away. We watched for an hour. Several women came and went, several cars went in and out of the parking lot. None of them was harassed in any way (unless you believe that the mere presence of a person who disagrees with is harassment). Nonetheless, the pro-abortionists continued to portray the event as an awful case of violating all those women’s rights. So, color me skeptical on your claims. (Full disclosure: I have also taken part in a few Walks For Life and such, though I have not partaken in a protest outside an abortion provider.)

Your comments are just so much childish “she hit me, too!” The fact that you can watch that video and not see the evil in what was being done by the pro-abortionists and not condemn it unequivocally points out the blind spot in your soul.

Those men guarding the cathedral in prayer are so remarkable. While part of me would have been tempted to be far less Christian towards the mob (courtesy of my Louisville slugger), I think I would have taken even more joy in solidarity with the men in prayer… because I just know deep down that that sort of thing really pisses off that pack of jackals.

I would respectfully ask the Holy Father if he thinks this sort of thing happening in his (adopted) home country might prompt some practicing Catholics to “obsess” on abortion just a tad… and if that’s OK.
dpduq on December 3, 2013 at 4:04 PM

He took time out from his latest I’m really,really humble stunt to remark, “Who am I to judge?”.

The SSPX’s last stunt in Argentina was to disrupt the annual Holocaust rememberance service in Buenos Aires a few weeks back. It got some play in the media because the service was started by Bergoglio and was seen as a slap by SSPX against the Pope. The same traditionalist Catholics who were defending the church against the nutty feminist ladies also argued that they were “defending” the Cathedral in Buenos Aires against the “Jews.” The Argentine traditionalist blogs see equivalency between the two incidents. I speak Spanish and occasionally go to some of the blogs because it has really helped me understand Papa and his views. (Considering how anti-Semitic and radical the blogs are, it isn’t surprising that Francis isn’t a fan of traditionalist types.)

The situation tends to be worse on the American side. Let’s look at a few accounts coming from south of the border, in rough chronological order.

In 1989, eight members of the Coalition to Defend Abortion Rights were arrested for assault and battery after attacking some of 500 pro-life activists who were taking part in an Operation Rescue protest at the Woman Care abortuary in suburban Detroit.

The same year, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission held hearings on police brutality against Operation Rescue participants in Pittsburgh and West Hartford, Conn. Human Life International charged that the protesters had been subjected to tactics including: breaking arms with martial arts weapons; stripping and molesting female protesters; pain-compliance holds; kicking and punching; gouging, trampling by horses, tight handcuffs; verbal abuse; and denial of legal counsel, food, and medication.

The West Hartford situation led 261 pro-life demonstrators to file a complaint of police brutality against the town with the UN Human Rights Commission. In that case, the demonstrators said they suffered unnecessary abuse, such as kicking, dragging and punching. “Those people weren’t just roughed up, they were tortured,” exclaimed lawyer John Broderick, who represented the pro-lifers. “It’s hard to believe it happened in this country.”

In May 1990, Carl Armstrong, an abortionist and owner of the Toledo Medical Services abortuary in Toledo, Oh., was charged with criminal assault after an Operation Rescue protester was injured when Armstrong used the metal rear door of his facility as a battering ram.

In July 1990, the head of the Burlington, Vt. Women’s Council was convicted and fined for punching a man who was praying outside an abortuary. The prosecuting attorney said Frank Hassler was struck while he had his eyes closed.

In November 1990, a man and woman lying in front of a Youngstown, Oh. abortuary were run over by a pickup truck, and a retired Roman Catholic priest was sprayed with Mace, during a pro-life protest at the Mahoning Women’s Centre. Fr. William Witt said he was attacked by an abortuary worker when he attempted to sit in front of the abortuary’s door.

In December 1990, reports out of Valhalla, N.Y. said that Operation Rescue prisoners at Westchester County Correctional Centre were subjected to assaults from prison officials in order to force them to reveal their identities. (A common Operation Rescue tactic used by participants is to refuse to give one’s name, in solidarity with the voiceless unborn.)

The reports say that one prisoner was stomped on the chest while lying on the ground. Other prisoners were said to have been tied to chairs and chained at the feet as groups of prison guards physically attacked them. One 63-year-old protester was told by a guard, “I support abortion, and you’re going to die.”

Videos cameras are said to have been turned off during the assaults. Westchester County Correctional Centre was already under investigation because of previous allegations of the same sort. One prisoner’s hand was swollen and may have been broken, but his requests for medical attention were ignored.

In January 1991, police seized, dropped on her head and – while she was barely conscious – arrested Theresa Reall of Sacramento, Ca., who was protesting at a prayer service honouring pro-abortion governor-elect Pete Wilson.

In March 1991, abortionist Stephen Kaali, assisted by a security guard, assaulted a group of Operation Rescue protesters who were blocking his abortuary’s door in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Kaali punched one woman in the back, and tossed a bucket of soapy solution over the head of another woman. He then kicked two men.

“It was demonic to see the venom in that man as he went wild,” said Debra Smaloore, who was drenched by the solution. “He spat in my face, too.” The protesters pursued criminal charges against Kaali.

In September 1991, supporters of Buffalo-area abortionist Barnett Slepian, who was slain several years later, pushed and shoved pro-life demonstrators who blocked Slepian’s Porsche as it pulled into the Buffalo Women’s Services abortuary. Pro-lifer Irene Gennuso was knocked to the sidewalk, where she struck the back of her head. An ambulance was called, and Gennuso was transported to hospital to be treated for her injury.

During 1992, abortionist Herbert Remer of Iowa was reported to have assaulted pro-lifers on at least three separate occasions, while his daughter Sarah, who has a black-belt in karate, struck a pro-life picketer. In one incident, Remer turned a water hose on two picketers, while in another, Remer gave a pro-lifer a bloody lip, threatened him with Mace and inflicted $300 damage to his car. In a third incident, Remer is said to have stomped on a pro-lifer’s knee.

In 1993, 51-year-old Jerry Simon, a Huntsville, Ala. pastor and local pro-life leader, was shot and killed by a woman who, during a subsequent six-hour standoff with police, read from Anton LeVay’s Satanic Bible.

During the summer of 1993, four pro-abortion activists were arrested and charged for stalking Operation Rescue’s Cities of Refuge campaign. After the arrests, police found a video camera as well as papers containing the licence plate numbers and physical descriptions of a number of pro-life activists that they had been following.

In September 1993, Livonia, Mich. abortionist Enrique Gerbi was charged with assault and battery after having kicked a woman who was attempting to serve court papers on him. According to the account of Terri Lee Buckshaw, who alleged the incident, Gerbi kicked her after she touched him with the papers and said, “Consider yourself served. See you in court.”

In October 1993, an abortionist was charged with three counts of assault, and one of disorderly conduct, and a complaint was filed against a police lieutenant, following a pro-life demonstration at an Omaha, Neb. abortuary. The pro-lifers had placed themselves inside 55-gallon drums weighted down with tar and concrete at the front and back doors of the abortuary. As police watched passively, abortionist G. William Orr became so enraged at the blockade, he began cursing the demonstrators and attempting to tip over the drums in which they were.

Orr left the scene, to return later with a garden hose, a can of gasoline and rope. He drenched one set of demonstrators with water from the hose, then poured gasoline over one drum, hinting that he would set it afire.

Orr then tied a drum to his car and instructed one of his staff to start driving. A pro-lifer jumped in before this could happen, however, and removed the rope from the drum. Police finally intervened in the events at this point.

Lieutenant Tom Donaghy, the officer in charge, called in a tow truck to remove the drum from the abortuary’s front door. As it was towed away, the drum almost tipping over on several occasions.

In November 1993, a sidewalk counsellor outside a Milwaukee, Wis. abortuary had a gun pulled on him and was threatened with death after offering literature to a man. “Back off or I’ll fix you!” the man is reported to have yelled as he took out the pistol.

Despite the fact that pro-lifers on the scene wrote down the licence plate number of the car in which the gun-toting man drove off, police were unable to apprehend anyone and later said that the investigation was “ongoing.”

Also in 1993, the Clinic Protection Coalition in Milwaukee, Wis. left a message on its “Voice for Choice” phone message line which urged sympathizers to “polish up on your football tactics and come on out and join us.” Earlier that year, one of the Coalition’s members bit a pro-life demonstrator on the arm.

The tense situation reached a climax during a demonstration where a seven-year-old pro-life demonstrator was cursed at and kicked in the head as she prayed outside the Wisconsin Women’s Health Centre. Her father later found nails planted in three of his car’s tires. Milwaukee pro-life leaders received threatening phone calls, and one leader was followed as he left his house one morning. So-called “clinic protectors” were also accused of pushing, shoving and kneeing pro-lifers.

In Hempstead, N.Y. that same year, 71-year-old pro-life demonstrator Pat Erickson was set upon by a young pro-abortionist who punched him in the face many times as he counselled outside an abortion referral service. The assailant escaped before police arrived and was not caught.

During hearings held by the U.S. congressional subcommittee on crime and criminal justice related to the proposed Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances bill in 1993, committee members heard of physical assaults, vandalism, bomb scares and death threats perpetrated against pro-life individuals and groups.

Witnesses included Rev. James McHugh, Roman Catholic bishop of Camden, N.J., Rabbi Yehuda Levin of New York City, and Vic Eliason, vice-president of Channel 40 television in Milwaukee.

Bishop McHugh described the desecration of Catholic churches and the disruption of religious services by pro-abortion sympathizers. Stephen Wood, president of the Florida Life Centre, said he received a call in which someone stated, “We will blow you a——- up.”

Rabbi Levin said he has accounts of pro-lifers being kicked, having urine tossed in their faces , receiving death threats, and having their car tires slashed.

Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defence Coalition said he had to have seven SWAT team members in full riot gear protect him during a church service because pro-abortionists threatened to attack him with AIDS-infected needles.

All the weapons were found with rounds in their chambers and cocked for firing. Two men questioned by police said they were “just doing a favour” for local abortionist W. Phillip Keene. Police released the two men with only a warning against trespassing.

The same month, abortionist Joseph Booker was reported to have pointed a gun at pro-lifers trying to dissuade women from entering his Jackson, Miss. abortuary. Booker “opened up his black pouch, pulled out his gun, and started waving it at the women and children, then pointed it at me,” said pro-life activist Roy McMillan.

Police later charged Booker with simple assault, as well as pointing and aiming a firearm.

Also in March 1994, a group of pro-abortion women broke into the offices of the University of Miami’s student newspaper and destroyed 10,000 copies of the pro-life advertising supplement “She’s a Child, Not a Choice,” that was scheduled to be distributed inside the newspaper’s next issue, by pouring red dye over the copies.

The group later claimed responsibility for the damage in a fax to the newspaper. Undaunted, pro-lifers ordered another 10,000 copies of the supplement and guarded them carefully against destruction or theft. The newspaper’s editor agreed that the vandalism was an attempt at censorship of the pro-life view, but the national office of the National Organization for Women contacted the school and demanded that the newspaper’s editors be reprimanded for including the supplement.

In December 1994, Tom Burghardt of the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights in San Francisco, wrote an article “analyzing” the shooting of B.C. abortionist Garson Romalis, in which he exhorted readers to “attack the fascists wherever they are” and called for “reproductive rights by any means necessary.” This followed a pro-abortion rally in B.C., which saw literature distributed by the Trotskyist League urging the “sweeping away” of “right-to-life mobs whenever they appear.”

In March 1995, Memphis, Tenn. pro-life activist Kathy Worthy was accosted by local abortionist Gus Giddens as she tried to take his photograph outside an abortuary. “You’re not going to take my picture. Give me that film!” Giddens yelled as he grabbed Worthy and threw her onto the street into oncoming traffic.

Worthy narrowly escaped being hit by a car, but did suffer a sprained back. Police who were called initially refused to take a complaint or file a warrant for Giddens. A detective who contacted Worthy later tried to talk her out of filing a criminal complaint, but eventually, a warrant was issued and a court appearance was scheduled for Giddens.

In October 1995, Milwaukee, Wis. abortionist Gary Prohaska sprayed Mace at pro-life demonstrators outside Milwaukee’s Planned Parenthood abortuary, even though they were 50 feet away from him at the time he charged at them. Although the city attorney’s office reluctantly accepted complaints about the incident, no charges were filed against Prohaska, who had been wooed from a $480,000 estate in Oregon to become Planned Parenthood’s star abortionist in Wisconsin.

The same month, a column in the State University of New York at Buffalo’s student newspaper The Spectrum called for violence to be directed against pro-lifers on campus. “Rant for choice” by Michelle Goldberg exhorted students to “do your part and spit at (pro-lifers). Kick them in the head.” Goldberg also observed that, “Just once, I’d like to see someone blow up one of their churches.” The next day, vandals destroyed parts of a display of 4,400 crosses set up by the campus Students for Life group.

Attempts to have condemned Goldberg’s column were met with indifference by the university’s administration, which noted that her sentiments were protected by the principles of freedom of speech. “I walk in fear of a nameless, faceless enemy spurred on by calls to violence printed in The Spectrum,” responded Laurel Graham, an adviser for Students for Life.

In September 1996, two escorts for a Greenville, S.C. abortuary were charged with assault and battery after a pro-life sidewalk counsellor said they slammed a car door on her legs.

Ruth Trippi, 61 and a grandmother of 12, was speaking to two women in a car outside the Palmetto State Medical Centre when one of the escorts walked up screaming and started pounding on the driver’s side window. The man then moved to the passenger side and tried to remove Trippi from the car. Unsuccessful, the man and another female escort started slamming the car door on Trippi’s legs.

When Trippi tried to stand up, the man grabbed her shoulder and neck and slammed her against the car window. Taken to hospital later, she was found to have a head contusion, injuries to her neck and shoulder and a bruised leg bone. She was treated later for internal bleeding.

Warrants were issued for Michael Deanhardt, a member of the board of the local American Civil Liberties Union, and Elaine Norwood.

During late 1995, pro-lifers in Crestline, Ca. were warned by the sheriff’s department to cease the picketing of local abortionist Michael Morris because they were afraid Morris would shoot a picketer. The department had previously refused to reissue a permit allowing Morris to carry a concealed handgun.

In September 1998, pro-lifers at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan. were the targets of physical attacks. In one incident, a pro-abortionist drove his car into a crowd of demonstrating pro-lifers, narrowly missing one woman. In another, a pro-lifer was punched. The pro-abortionists were objecting to a demonstration that compared the plight of the unborn with the Holocaust and black slavery in America.

In October 1998, Teamsters union official Anthony Michael Mucillio was arrested, but not charged, after a pro-lifer and his sister were beaten to the ground and hospitalized outside Philadelphia’s city hall, where President Bill Clinton was appearing. Mucillio was later taken down in a $4 million drug bust, in which police found 10 kilograms of methamphetamines, 19 firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, military explosives and a book on how to build explosive devices.

The same month, a pro-abortion advocate on the Internet sought retribution against pro-lifers for the shooting of Buffalo abortionist Barnett Slepian. The man, known as “Hick” from Seattle, asked for information on Seattle-area pro-lifers and said, “I am going to avenge this one – an eye for an eye!” In another posting, “Hick” said, “Let’s kill the anti-abortionists! Anyone care to join me?” In a third he declared, “It’s time to hunt you down and make you pay!”

In January 1999, on the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision, four crisis pregnancy centres in California experienced vandalism and one received a bomb threat. The centres were spraypainted with slogans such as “Abortion is a right” and “Lies told here.” They were also plastered with posters supporting abortuaries, and had an epoxy-like substance smeared over their door locks.

That settles it.
You’ve never seen harassment…that one time you stopped by, or something.

You can’t be serious.
I more than acknowledge there are many in the pro-life movement who abhor the tactics of many others.
But those tactics, which range from harassment to murder, surely exist – and not without some support.
Nice to hear all you witnessed was some passive and gentle presence of some folks opposed.
I’ve seen that…and I’ve also seen screaming nut-jobs who hand their kids bloody signs to wave. Those folks are no different than topless, wig wearing, crotch-spray-painting yahoos Ed features today.

I’d think Ed would welcome a saner debate that the kind of shouting match this post encourages.

There have been excesses on both sides, as some murdered doctors show. I have seen with my own eyes pro-lifers being inappropriately aggressive towards women entering abortion clinics. There is nothing dishonest, intellectually or otherwise, about pointing this out.

thuja on December 3, 2013 at 4:00 PM

Again:

But why don’t you direct us to a comparable display from the pro-life side since you are going to use the rather lazy method of moral equivalency. Please show us the pro-life thugs assaulting, en masse, pro-baby killers.

I don’t defend murderers by saying, “Hey! The Argentina protest!”. Those who have murdered are the same as abortionists. They deserve their fates. But the pro-baby killing movement in Argentina is apparently pro-violence so as to get their way, and you can’t seem to give it a blanket condemnation. Instead you attempt moral equivalency.

About this “blind desire” to defend a particular side, I seem to remember a story in your Bible about a “mote in the eye”.

It’s not my Bible, it’s our Bible. Your rejection of it is just another black stain on your soul. May God have mercy on it.

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

I think you first need to point out my hypocrisy on this issue before pointing to my nonexistent beam. I’m thinking maybe the verse rightly applies to you, instead.

This is silly.
Where’s your equivalent of a John Salvi…or a Donald Spitz?

But let’s agree on something…
Pro-choice’ers shouldn’t spray paint bad words, or say bad things on the internet, or get mad and and shove people when they try and take a picture.
And pro-life’rs shouldn’t hunt down and shoot people to death.
We good?

I thought liberals were suppose to be media savvy? No matter what the circumstances are it looks like the abortion supporters are harassing the passive faithful, who are faithfully turning the other cheek.

“The women, many of them topless, spray-painted the men’s crotches and faces and swastikas on their chests and foreheads, using markers to paint their faces with Hitler-like moustaches. They also performed obscene sexual acts in front of them and pushed their breasts onto their faces, all the while shouting “get your rosaries out of our ovaries.” (Note: Some of the most graphic content has been removed from the video. Uncensored footage is available here. Viewer discretion strongly advised.)

According to InfoCatolica, some of the women chanted a song, with the lyrics: “To the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, who wants to get between our sheets, we say that we want to be whores, travesties and lesbians. Legal abortion in every hospital.”

During the attack some men were visibly weeping. None of them retaliated against the abuses heaped on them.

While the site of the protest was the front of the cathedral, InfoBae reports that “the whole city awoke to graffiti in favor of abortion.”

Inside the cathedral, 700 people were also in prayer accompanied by their bishop Mos. Alfonso Delgado.

After unsuccessfully trying to get into the building, the women burned a human-sized effigy of Pope Francis. “If the pope were a woman, abortion would be legal,” they shouted.

The attack took place on Sunday, November 24th during the National Women’s Encounter, which annually brings together Argentinean feminists who support “women’s rights.”

The police reportedly told the media they were unable to intervene because “they are women.”

The parish priest Fr. Rómulo Campora said to the Diario de Cuyo that “the burning of the image of Pope Francis is an offense, not just to the Church but to every Argentinean because the pope is Argentinean.”

Praising the men who defended the church, he said: “San Juan loves its God, loves its faith, loves its family.”

He lamented the damage done to the cathedral and concluded that “if they don’t respect life, we can’t expect them to respect the buildings.”

The National Women’s Encounter takes place every year in different Argentinean cities, sponsored by the Department of Culture as a “social interest” event.

According to the Argentinean pro-life site ArgentinosAlerta.org, this is not the first time that the feminists wind up in public violence against churches and Catholics.

In past protests, the cathedral of Bariloche, Paraná and Posadas have also suffered damages from these groups….”

“On one side, they try to impose political agenda that international organizations dictate: population control, abortion, contraception, homosexualism. On the other side, they become barbaric in the most literal sense.” – Lifesite News

This is silly.
Where’s your equivalent of a John Salvi…or a Donald Spitz?

But let’s agree on something…
Pro-choice’ers shouldn’t spray paint bad words, or say bad things on the internet, or get mad and and shove people when they try and take a picture.
And pro-life’rs shouldn’t hunt down and shoot people to death.
We good?

I’ve put a post down below. I minored in Spanish in college and I occasionally read some Spanish to keep up my language skills. I’ve taken to reading some of the traditionalist Catholic blogs in Argentina because they help me understand Bergoglio and his experiences in Buenos Aires. Dawn Eden over at Patheos posted about this back in April; there was some back and forth about whether Bergoglio allowed EF Masses in Buenos Aires. It turns out that the blogger in question had made fun of the Holocaust. Although I cannot only stomach a bit of it at a time, I do occasionally visit these blogs because they provide valuable insight into the Pope’s actions (and why he dislikes traditionalist Catholics.) This blog and another one seem to be connected with the SSPX in Argentina and seem to have masterminded both this and the Kristallnatch demonstration in Buenos Aires. They see “equivalency” between the two events. So I really call B.S. on this being Lila Rose types. They are connected with a violent, reactionary version Catholicism that has been rejected by the Vatican.

Let me be clear…the paraders/mob were indeed behaving abhorrently. But as this event happens every year and is held by and run by these feminists, it seems that perhaps those praying were provoking more than protecting.
What was the threat on the church?
Maybe there’s some history or specific incident in the past, I don’t know. But my guess is the yahoos would have paraded right past the church but for those activists who had arranged the prayer vigil.
Let’s all not be so fooled all the time?

Those folks are no different than topless, wig wearing, crotch-spray-painting yahoos Ed features today.

verbaluce on December 3, 2013 at 4:27 PM

Umm, actually they seem a LOT different than the folks in the video, since they committed no vandalism and no assault or battery (by your description).

And (unlike some) I was not arguing a logical fallacy (from specific to general) with my observation. What I was commenting on was the fact that pro-abortionists still maintained that the protest was oh-so-vile and violated all these people’s rights when no such harassment was occurring. It is a trend among the pro-abortionists and the media.

Also a trend are the progressive hoax crimes. Given how often hate-crime hoaxes have been perpetrated in the last 10 years, I would bet that a more-than-insignificant number of the unsolved crimes against abortion providers in the list to which you linked were actually self-inflicted.

Maybe there’s some history or specific incident in the past, I don’t know. But my guess is the yahoos would have paraded right past the church but for those activists who had arranged the prayer vigil.
Let’s all not be so fooled all the time?

Let me be clear…the paraders/mob were indeed behaving abhorrently. But as this event happens every year and is held by and run by these feminists, it seems that perhaps those praying were provoking more than protecting.

verbaluce on December 3, 2013 at 4:44 PM

Unbelievable. This looks familiar, though. Have you made this same absurd argument in the past on these pages? You know, that rape victims had it coming?

If someone comes into your house and caves your skull in did you have it coming for sitting peacefully in your home? If you catch trespassers on your property, and they shoot you, did you have it coming for having the temerity to confront them for trespassing?

What was the threat on the church?

Destruction of property.

Maybe there’s some history or specific incident in the past, I don’t know.ut my guess is the yahoos would have paraded right past the church but for those activists who had arranged the prayer vigil. Let’s all not be so fooled all the time?

It’s wonderful you can comment with such wonderful authority when you don’t actually read Ed’s post.

It’s not as if they had been taken by surprise, though, because this happens every year in Argentina for its National Meeting of Women, and a trek to defile the local cathedral is always on the agenda.

That may or may not be true, but I don’t understand why it’s relevant here. According to Ed this behavior is an annual tradition for the pro-baby killers. How exactly did SSPX orchestrate this?

NotCoach on December 3, 2013 at 4:45 PM

Apparently, they only showed up this year to provoke the nutty feminist protestors. I’m just repeating what I heard on the blogs and especially how it was similar to their “defense” of the Cathedral in Buenos Aires against the “evil Jews.” Let’s not glorify these guys. Please don’t.

Nah, he’s all yours.
A horror and an anomaly brought into existence.
Criminalize or further restrict access to abortion services, and you’ll have a Gosnell in every city.
Don’t let that happen.

verbaluce on December 3, 2013 at 4:52 PM

Yeah, that’s the lesson to learn, hypocrite. The Gosnell clinic was immune from inspection and imposing some kind of inspection regime would have helped Gosnell…own him, hypocrite. Otherwise shut your Fluking mouth about pro-life violence, because you have no leg to stand on, hypocrite.

“In a new interview Father Bouchacourt, South America District Superior of the SSPX says:“No, I don’t (support what happened at the Cathedral). I knew something in the vigil. They asked me for support. I said no. It was a stupid, sterile act.”

Apparently, they only showed up this year to provoke the nutty feminist protestors. I’m just repeating what I heard on the blogs and especially how it was similar to their “defense” of the Cathedral in Buenos Aires against the “evil Jews.” Let’s not glorify these guys. Please don’t.

Apparently, they only showed up this year to provoke the nutty feminist protestors. I’m just repeating what I heard on the blogs and especially how it was similar to their “defense” of the Cathedral in Buenos Aires against the “evil Jews.” Let’s not glorify these guys. Please don’t.

Illinidiva on December 3, 2013 at 4:53 PM

That was organized by Father Bouchacourt, South America District Superior of the SSPX protesting outside the Cathedral against Holocaust observances of a congregation within that Cathedral.

This is a different deal and was organized by the congregation. Some were inside the Cathedral praying and some were outside the Cathedral praying and being abused by a marauding mob of activists.

I’m assuming that people were bussed in for this and weren’t associated with the parish. I’m just saying what I’ve read on these blogs. I hesitate to post them here because they are veering on hate sites.

Illinidiva paints with a broad brush.

This commenter hates any traditionalist Catholics and paints them all as SSPX which is going schismatic since Pope Francis is ignoring them.

workingclass artist on December 3, 2013 at 5:06 PM

I’ve only learned much about traditional Catholicism since Francis’ election, and the sites I’ve visited don’t confirm a pretty picture. I only learned about Rorate Caeli when reading a Drudge Report story about the “lady footwashing” incident and was shocked of the coded anti-Semitism on that site. The Argentine sites are even worse. I have a rocky relationship with the Church in the past but have always defended the Church as not being ant-Semitic with my Jewish friends. I even remember defending Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ when it came out (before it was confirmed that he was an anti-Semite.) So I was very disappointed that my Jewish friends turned out to be right that there is a sector of people who profess to be Catholic and also still hold those sorts of views. If people who love a certain Mass form in America and elsewhere want to be under the good graces of Francis and their fellow Catholics, they should disavow the nuts on their side and start spending more time doing works of mercy in their communities and dioceses.

Let me be clear…the paraders/mob were indeed behaving abhorrently. But as this event happens every year and is held by and run by these feminists, it seems that perhaps those praying were provoking more than protecting.
What was the threat on the church?
Maybe there’s some history or specific incident in the past, I don’t know. But my guess is the yahoos would have paraded right past the church but for those activists who had arranged the prayer vigil.
Let’s all not be so fooled all the time?

verbaluce on December 3, 2013 at 4:44 PM

The Prayer vigil was in front of the Cathedral…It wasn’t around the neighborhood now was it?

But shouting naked activists were marauding around the neighborhood creating mayhem and property damage…So exactly who was being provocative?

The pro-life movement went through a phase of vandalism against abortion centers and rhetoric that lead to the murder of doctors. It is hardly in a position to condemn the excess of the pro-abortion activists. But I would agree that they shouldn’t be acting that way. Both sides should calm down a little and be more reasonable.

thuja on December 3, 2013 at 3:33 PM

Not really. You’re just looking for moral equivalence where there is none.

Although, as far as that goes, even if “both sides” were exactly the same, as you wish were true, one side would still be promoting the taking of life, and the other the protection of life. So even there you can’t really draw moral equivalence.

Let me be clear…the paraders/mob were indeed behaving abhorrently. But as this event happens every year and is held by and run by these feminists, it seems that perhaps those praying were provoking more than protecting.
What was the threat on the church?
Maybe there’s some history or specific incident in the past, I don’t know. But my guess is the yahoos would have paraded right past the church but for those activists who had arranged the prayer vigil.
Let’s all not be so fooled all the time?

verbaluce on December 3, 2013 at 4:44 PM

How dare they provoke all this violence by … standing there and taking it!

Sounds an awful lot like, “It’s her own fault she was raped. Did you see the way she was dressed?”

You’re blaming the victim. And illinidiva and thuja keep talking about “both sides” when there’s clearly only one side being violent.

But shouting naked activists were marauding around the neighborhood creating mayhem and property damage…So exactly who was being provocative?

workingclass artist on December 3, 2013 at 5:22 PM

Well not totally naked.
But seriously, again I reject and abhor the behavior (of the feminist paraders). I’m against yahoos of all stripes.
And I noted above that indeed the vigil guys could well have legitimate reason to protect the church.
Ed’s links seem to tell of other years with similar concerns, but not much horror or damage inflicted upon any churches or worshipers, aside from some spray paint.